The present invention generally relates to a gas supply assembly for an appliance powered by natural gas. The invention also provides a method of assembling the appliance.
Many domestic appliances are powered, at least in part, by natural gas. This necessitates that the appliance be provided with a gas supply assembly for connecting the appliance to an external gas supply line and for feeding the incoming natural gas to a burner assembly.
Various improvements of gas supply assemblies have been made through the years. These improvements include the use of a double-bead fitting such as found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,871,199 issued Oct. 3, 1989 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,285 issued Nov. 12, 1996, which are each incorporated herein by reference. Another improvement is the use of a stake joint to join a gas carrying tube with a fitting component. Examples of stake joints are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,930,298 issued Jan. 6, 1976, U.S. Pat. No. 3,977,710 issued Aug. 31, 1976 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,929 issued Nov. 28, 1978, each of which are incorporated herein by reference. Double-bead fittings and stake joints have helped to reduce the number of parts required by the appliance, and reduced the number of steps required to assemble the appliance.
Despite these improvements, however, there exists a need in the art of appliance manufacturing to further improve the gas supply assembly and the method of assembling the appliances. It has been found that during installation, excessive torque is often placed on parts comprising the gas supply assembly. This excessive torque commonly results in fractured parts or separated joints which would allow the leakage of natural gas. Obviously, this condition is unacceptable and must be corrected before completing the assembly process. Repairing or replacing damaged parts, however, increases both the total cost and assembly time of the appliances.
In addition, the installation process of a gas supply assembly into the appliance is lengthy and difficult. A number of factors contribute to this problem. These factors include the lack of space within the appliance to manipulate parts and tools, the difficulty in positioning the gas supply assembly around other appliance subsystems, and the difficulty in holding one end of gas supply assembly while securing the other. These difficulties also increase the total cost of the appliance.
The present invention overcomes at least some of the above-noted disadvantages of the related art by providing a gas supply assembly for an appliance that makes the assembling process easier and faster while minimizing the number of damaged parts. This is accomplished by providing a preshaped gas supply assembly that has interlocking components to support and prevent the rotation of the assembly during installation. The gas supply assembly can be attached to a burner assembly outside of the appliance where manipulation of the parts is simple. The gas supply assembly is constructed of lightweight parts that assist in reducing the overall weight and shipping cost of the appliance.